The ‘Fannibals’, as well as TV Academy members, came out en-masse Wednesday night to Awardsline’s screening of Gaumont International Television‘s Hannibal. While the crowd was armed with fan-made comic books, pictures and gifts for creator/showrunner Bryan Fuller, Hugh Dancy (Will Graham), Caroline Dhavernas (Dr. Alana Bloom) and executive producer Martha De Laurentiis; panel moderator, Deadline’s Dominic Patten, also took the opportunity to geek out by donning Hannibal’s plastic chopping garb.

With Hannibal leaving Will and Alana fatally wounded in the season 2 finale, which screened yesterday, Fuller exclaimed that “There is going to be a painful delay (in season 3) and you won’t find out in the first episode who survives. The first episode focuses on Dr. Bedelia du Maurier (Hannibal’s therapist played by Gillian Anderson).” As far as who survives, “It’s more like episode 2 or 3,” said Fuller.

While the show has been both a success in both its live (season 2 finale was up 19% from its season 1 ender) and extended DVR viewing, what elates Fuller the most is “sharing with those people who watch us live and tweet with us.” The immense amount of social media has spurred myriad facets of fandom, one of which is “The Hannigram”, which Fuller defined as drawings that are the “Homoeroticism of Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham”.

Deconstrucing his writing process for the Gothic cinematic series, Fuller said, “We broke season two down into two chapters, so that we could ultimately tell the psychological tale of ‘The Murder Husbands’ — Will and Hannibal — by the end. So, the first part was heavily plot driven with Beverly dying, Gideon dying and Chilton getting shot in the face. It was about setting up these tentpoles, and then capturing the reality of where those things go. (This would lead to moments) where we’d be in the writers room and someone would pitch a good idea like ‘bees in someone’s head’ or ‘Let’s kill Chilton!’” Fuller then quipped to his fellow writer and executive producer at the screening, “That was Steve Lightfoot’s idea. If someone dies on the show, it’s because of Steve.”

As far as what Fuller would like to see unfold on Hannibal, he exclaimed, “I can’t wait to dig my claws into the character of Francis Dolarhyde and his visions of the Red Dragon!” Dolarhyde aka “The Tooth Fairy” was the serial killer in the Thomas Harris novel who killed off entire families (he was played by Ralph Fiennes in the 2002 Brett Ratner film). Hugh Dancy, who earlier that morning was nominated for a TV Critics’ Choice Award for best actor, drama concurred, “The material with Dolarhyde and the blind lady – we’ll have to approach that in an interesting way.”